A Message to Stanford Students

Hey–glad you stum­bled across the site.

You’re wel­come to poke around here and learn more about Paula and I. Just so you know, this web­site is a tool we use to keep fam­i­ly, friends, and min­istry part­ners up-to-date on our lives and min­istry.

So if you came here want­i­ng to learn more about Chi Alpha, check out Chi Alpha @ Stan­ford or nation­al Chi Alpha.

If I’m Freak­ing You Out
If you just stum­bled across this web­site while search­ing for some­thing else and are grow­ing increas­ing­ly hor­ri­fied as you read of my nefar­i­ous plans to engage stu­dents in spir­i­tu­al dis­cus­sions, allow me to explain myself.

Some stu­dents are real­ly uptight about reli­gion, but most are not. Stu­dents gen­er­al­ly enjoy hav­ing a non-pushy and thought-pro­vok­ing dis­cus­sion with some­one about inter­est­ing things like the mean­ing of life, the exis­tence of God, the nature of moral­i­ty, and the pow­er of reli­gious belief.

Those are the peo­ple I inter­act with. I don’t roam about the cam­pus like a lion seek­ing unwit­ting stu­dents to devour. I talk with peo­ple about things they want to talk about.

For the record, Chi Alpha is an orga­ni­za­tion in good stand­ing with Stan­ford Asso­ci­at­ed Reli­gions and is also a reg­is­tered vol­un­tary stu­dent orga­ni­za­tion at Stan­ford. That means our pres­ence is sanc­tioned by the uni­ver­si­ty.

So chill.

If I’m Freak­ing You Out Now
If, on the oth­er hand, you were fine with every­thing I said until I explained that I’m not pushy and obnox­ious, read on.

Being pushy and rude isn’t the Bib­li­cal mod­el for evan­ge­lism. Don’t believe me?

• Con­sid­er the Gold­en Rule (Matthew 7:12), where­in Jesus tells us to treat oth­ers the way we want to be treat­ed. That applies to evan­ge­lism, too. If you would­n’t want an athe­ist, Mus­lim, or Mor­mon talk­ing to you a cer­tain way, don’t talk that way to oth­ers.
• Notice Peter’s advice that we are called to live in such a way that peo­ple ask us ques­tions about our beliefs, and when they do we answer them gen­tly and respect­ful­ly (1 Peter 3:15–16)
• Con­sid­er Paul’s prayer request in Colos­sians 4:3–4, in which he prays for oppor­tu­ni­ties. Note that he does not announce his clever plans for trick­ing peo­ple into talk­ing with him. He prays that God would bring the con­ver­sa­tions about.

In oth­er words, I’m not shirk­ing back from pro­claim­ing the gospel clear­ly, nor am I capit­u­lat­ing to some insane cam­pus speech code, nor am I liv­ing in fear of the sec­u­lar sta­tus quo. I’m mere­ly being wise and bib­li­cal.

Just think about it: I’m an ordained min­is­ter and nation­al­ly appoint­ed mis­sion­ary with the Assem­blies of God, which the world’s largest Protes­tant denom­i­na­tion and which is con­sid­ered by many to be the most effec­tive mis­sion­ary move­ment in the his­to­ry of the world (reflect on this: we did­n’t exist 100 years ago and are now one of the largest reli­gious move­ments any­where). The Assem­blies of God did­n’t send us to reach Stan­ford because we’re some kind of cow­ard­ly wimps. They sent us because they believe we are called, gift­ed, and guid­ed by God for this task.

So chill.